Feeding in winter and spring can be essential to keeping a colony’s stores from running low; most commonly used is 2:1 sugar:water mixture for this purpose.
Frames of capped honey provide emergency food sources over winter. Additional methods for providing emergency sustenance include dumping dry sugar behind the hive with the use of a screen bottom board, baggie feeders (stored inside boxes or one by three shims to make space), and winter patties.
Contents
1. Sugar Syrup
Sugar syrup is the go-to bee food source during fall and winter months. To create it, combine common table sugar with water; typically two parts sugar to one part water by weight or volume is optimal, though this ratio can change depending on desired syrup thickness.
Liquid bee feed typically consists of high levels of sucrose with trace amounts of fructose and glucose, plus other ingredients such as minerals, vitamins, pigments, organic acids, or nitrogen compounds. Unfortunately it lacks protein essential for building comb and brood production and so bees consuming only syrup may starve if their pollen stores run low.
Beekeepers can use additional sugar syrup and winter patties, among other tools, to stimulate colony building and strengthen weak colonies.
2. Liquid Feeders
Sugar syrup is the easiest and most cost-effective way to feed bees. It should consist of equal parts water and white table sugar and should be fed during spring and fall feedings, though emergency feedings in winter could also use it as food source.
Liquid feed feeder options require close attention to avoid mold growth and robber damage, with boardman feeders such as mason jars placed over the entrance of a hive being popular among beekeepers. Another popular type is dry sugar feeders which use small bricks stacked atop an inner cover to reduce entrance robbing while monitoring bee stores easily; these methods are especially helpful during the cold months when colony resources run low.
3. Dry Sugar
Some beekeepers use solid winter feed to protect their colonies against starvation during the cold months and boost them come springtime. This could involve candy boards, fondant, sugar bricks or pouring granulated sugar onto newspapers just above clusters for feeding purposes.
Liquid feeders may become problematic if your hive contains large quantities of stored honey or is rearing brood and requires additional nutrients for this work. They also restrict airflow through the hive which reduces body temperature and leads to condensation – one of the primary killers of wintering bees. Therefore, liquid feeders should generally be avoided during cold weather months unless you have plenty of capped honey stored or there has been an unexpected nectar flow in autumn.
4. Candy Board
Candy boards can provide additional sugar for colonies that need it during the winter, especially those without enough stored honey to last through it or having experienced an exceptionally long and difficult summer.
This recipe for candy board sugar includes vinegar as an anti-fungal agent to keep mold and mildew at bay over the winter season. Bees seem unaffected by even small amounts of vinegar present in this recipe and often devour it completely!
Place Winter Patties or Candy Board in your hive to provide extra sugar during the winter season for your bees. This high carbohydrate feed contains Sugar, AP23 pollen replacement and Honey B Healthy.
5. Fondant
Fondant is an effective food solution for honeybee colonies lacking stores during late winter. It can be placed directly over or under the cluster, without needing to use an external feeder; bees consume it through respiration.
It contains AP23 powder and pro-health for bee health, with very fine sugar particles so bees can digest them easily. Furthermore, HiveAlive, vitamins, and amino acids promote gut health for optimal bee health.
Fondant added to a beehive in midwinter can save its colony from starvation. If a colony is already light, adding one block as soon as possible and then another at regular intervals to reduce evaporation losses is key to its survival.
